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This week the stunning Obama portraits at the National Portrait Gallery were unveiled and Michelle Obama released this Valentine’s Day playlist titled “Forever Mine: Michelle to Barack”:

The importance that the Obama’s always placed on art of all kinds matters. It matters a lot.

They both chose African-American artists to paint their portraits and they did not do traditional portraits. Like his presidency, they are rich with symbolism; the Washington Post writes “these portraits will remind future generations how much wish fulfillment was embodied in the Obamas, and how gracefully they bore that burden.” As I listened to the Spotify playlist at work I thought about Michelle and Barack dancing in their living room to Calvin Harris, Leon Bridges, Alabama Shakes, Van Morrison, Kendrick Lamar, Tim McGraw and all of the other amazing artists on their playlist. I’m not sure what you do, but I turn on music (KTAO Radio) the minute I wake up, and we constantly have music on in our home and car. My whole life, and probably yours, has a soundtrack. It matters.

It starts with the inauguration, Obama had a poet at both of his. I listened to Robert Blanco reciting “One Today” over and over again after the 2013 inauguration. It matters that he chose a gay immigrant to deliver the inaugural poem. It matters that the Kennedy’s had Frost read a poem; and man, can I remember when the incomparable Maya Angelou recited “On the Pulse of Morning” at Clinton’s inauguration.

From the iconic poster of the youthful Barack’s face with the words “Hope,” to the yearly favorite books and playlists that were released, to the cultural food movement Michelle tried to accomplish (with resistance from lobbyists), to the references to history & pop culture that were a constant in Obama’s speeches. It matters.

We SEE one another in art. In books, poems, music, paintings, photographs, film. Story telling in all forms is an integral part of the human experience. It matters.

I don’t think I need to say this, but maybe I do (we humans seem to be stupider than ever these days, and yes, I am feeling snarky) – contrast all of the above to the current President who only believes in power, money, whiteness, and objectifying woman. An inauguration that focused on american carnage and the size of the crowd without a poet in sight. The man does not have a cultural bone in his (unhealthy) body – he doesn’t even believe in exercising or in eating unprocessed food (i.e. his love of fast food and desire to give poor people a box of processed yumminess). Again, he is trying to eliminate arts and humanities funding in his latest budget.

It matters who Americans elected as President. It filters down and out and around. Art matters and I miss having a President who knew that.

You know what’s crazy – Laura Ingalls Wilder probably would have voted for Donald Trump. I can’t stop thinking about Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. It is a book for right now. Like so many little girls, Laura Ingalls Wilder was an integral part of my childhood. I wanted to live in a little house on the prairie and travel around in a covered wagon.

As Fraser describes Wilder’s life in vivid detail several myths are shattered over and over again. The myth of the romantic American West. The myth of surviving by homesteading. The myth of American Exceptionalism. The myth that a farmer can make it on their own. There is huckster fantasy, and then there is reality. Which, of course, is what we are seeing right now.

Wilder lived during an incredible time and Fraser takes us through all of it. She delves into the man-made Dust Bowl, reactions to the New Deal, yellow journalism, Little House books used as propaganda in Japan, “Indians”, the TV show, and politics. So, so much politics. Charles Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder both lost (several) homes and, perhaps, it was easier to blame the government than their bad decisions when this happened. This led to Wilder and her daughter to have very strong (and interesting and often hypocritical) political feelings. An article in the New Republic talking about the book “Ultimately, that same drive to be alone with the wilderness got converted to a founding myth of individualism, out of which emerged an ideology that visualized freedom from government as an equivalent of freedom itself. The descendants of that myth are among us still. If Laura Ingalls Wilder were alive today she would be a member of the Tea Party. She would almost certainly have voted for Donald Trump, many of whose followers yet believe that he will restore to them the dubious glory of the frontier America that Wilder so passionately celebrated in her books.”

More stuff to make you think…

Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward – Devastating and beautiful. My heart broke so much as I read it. Reminded me of Toni Morrison. Much-deserved National Book Award winner.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz – I can’t believe how much I loved this delightful, Agatha Christie type book. A mystery within a mystery to get totally lost in. A book I could recommend to almost anyone.

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman – Main character has a familiar (not a pet!) that is a crow. I am so jealous of her… another great Hoffman book full of dreamy, magical enchantment. It takes place in the 60’s and is a companion piece to Practical Magic.

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent – A story of survival in a shitty world. The cruelty of family members, nature, the world at large. Be prepared for horrible abuse scenes like last year’s A Little Life.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo – Utterly depressing book by a Nigerian writer about infertility and desperately needing/wanting baby. Extreme measures with repercussions.

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich – this is a frustrating, dystopian book with really good parts. Somehow it feels very real even with the lack of all the details and the unknown parts of the story. Loved this: “Some men smell right and others don’t. You know what I mean if you are a woman who breathes in the fragrance of the stem end of a melon to choose it or if the odor of mock orange or lilac transfixes or if you pass a piece of woody earth and know from a gulp of air that the soft, wet, fleshy foot of a mushroom has thrust from the earth somewhere close. Men smell good in all different ways. Salty vanilla. Hot dirt. New grass. Bitter lead…” and also loved this: “I can’t bear it – crackers and cheese! It reminds me of all the wonderful, normal times that I have eaten crackers and cheese with my parents or friends. So many times in my past life and I’ve never appreciated how comforting and convivial those times were.”

Also this discussion between Atwood & Erdich where they bring up the 2000 election…which was determined by a handful of votes like the current one. Imagine if Gore had been elected and climate change was addressed, the strides that could have been made over last 16 years. The world would look completely different.

We’re coming upon one of my least favorite times of the year. I’m often called the Grinch. I love being with family and celebrating anything with a big meal, and of course, I always love champagne and having so much time off of work. But when it starts to involve so much crap and capitalism in overdrive, I start to go crazy. Christmas trees, plastic toys that will end up in a landfill very soon, stressed-out people, unrealistic expectations, crazy shopping malls, people who claim that there is a war on Christmas – sometimes it’s all too, too much.

I’m going to spend this season with my mantra being a quote from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. “Saving the Things We Love.” For me, that’s animals (did you notice that the latest Star Wars shows animal rights over and over again!!), nature, art, music, books, clean skies & water, healthy food, equality. It’s the restaurants and shops in my community. It’s National Public Radio Podcasts. It’s paying the people who do the hardest work a livable wage. It’s leaving the kids I love a healthy, sustainable, just world.

Intention, intention, intention in everything. I’ll try to do that more than ever this year.

My 2nd favorite line in the new Star Wars is when Phasma says to Finn, “You were always scum,” and Finn says “Rebel scum.” That line rings true for many reasons – and of course, it is an homage to Hans Solo.

Stuff I’m thinking about and reading right now:

Ann Patchett’s My Year of No Shopping in NY Times. I’m a horrible shopper – the absolute worst. Maybe that’s another reason I’m not a fan of Christmas. Great article by one of my faves. Maybe it will give you some inspiration for the coming year?

I’ve been reading Ginsberg’s “America” a lot lately. In my 20’s I studied the Beats so much – particularly this poem and Corso’s Bomb. In the poem Ginsberg is arguing with America about the promise of America and where we are going as a nation. So many parallels to today. Favorite lines: America when will we end the human war/Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.

This interview with Isbell & Shires. I can’t tell you how much his music has meant to me over the last year. I love that they take a stand and speak out against injustice. “A lot of people don’t care. And those are all people whose problems have been solved on their behalf. If you’re the kind of person who’s getting pulled over by the cops every time you go anywhere, even though you’ve done nothing wrong, then you are concerned about race and your community. The people who really don’t care are the people who don’t realize how easy they have it.”

This article about 2017 in Teen Vogue is so good! Love THIS “Of the repeated criticisms I receive from strange men on the Internet about any given topic, the most confounding is the idea that I am “too angry.” and THIS “Perhaps the one optimistic take on this godforsaken year is that we’ve begun to recall that the American project is not a historical accomplishment to be celebrated but instead an ongoing process of figuring out how we ought to live together.”

Two of my favorite TV shows this year were by Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace on Netflix (demonstrates women being used over and over again by men in different ways) and The Handmaidens Tale on Hulu (swept the emmys!). Glad that one my most beloved authors is everywhere right now. Her speculative fiction is needed more than ever.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many cool people at my job throughout the years. One of my faves is Sci-Fi author Kim Stanley Robinson – check out this interview with him in Lithub where he talks about capitalism, climate change, and dystopia. Another awesome person I’ve got to hang with is community organizer and writer Adrienne Maree Brown. Love this blog post that she recently wrote about meeting Obama in Chicago.

And I’ve been on SUCH a good reading streak:

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan A historical novel written with precise details and an engaging storyline. Egan is awesome and this is a beautiful, timely novel. A good novel to get lost in with a warm drink and a cozy blanket.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee A multi-generational, fast-paced novel about a Korean family that moves to Japan. Along with being a narrative about family drama, it explores class, poverty, racism and more than anything luck! Some of us are so much luckier than others. It’s all a game of Pachinko.

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker This book gives you all the behind the scene details of the wine and sommelier industry. If you like Sweetbitter (which is becoming a mini-series on Starz)or Anthony Bourdain’s books, check this out.

The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage by Phillip Pullman. Pullman is spectacular – every kid and adult should read his Dark Materials Trilogy and Sally Lockhart series. This book is the first in a planned trilogy and takes place in the world of Dark Materials. It’s a great book (although it may be about 25 pages too long) that explores climate change & political & religious tyranny through the eyes of a young, brave boy named Malcolm.

Of course, before there was Phillip Pullman, there was Madeline L’Engle writing all of her “un-Christian” texts. I can NOT wait for the movie A Wrinkle in Time – this article in Time has me even more excited. I can’t believe that Oprah is in the movie version of one of the books that influenced me more than anything. AND Captain Kirk aka Chris Pine! I can’t begin to tell you what Madeline L’Engle meant to me as a kid. The 3rd (A Swiftly Tilting Planet) and 4th (Many Waters) books in the Time quintent series remain my favorite and also I loved her “Meet the Austins” series. L’Engle was so far ahead of her time.

The End We Start From by Megan Hunt A super-short, 1 hour read that transports you to a flooded London where a woman has just had a baby boy and needs to protect him. Like Station Eleven, this book makes you thankful for the present moment, at the same time it reminds you that any of us could be refugees trying to survive.

If a nuke detonated tomorrow I would not be shocked. Nothing is surprising anymore. I spent today in tears because of the nasty responses to bending the knee protests instigated by the racist president. Newsflash all you jerks: You can support the troops AND kneel when the anthem plays. It is not one or the other. Everyday it feels like I am watching reality TV, disaster porn, the Hunger Games instead of the news. Over the last few weeks the destruction left by Hurricane Harvey moved to non-stop watching news of a potential “nuclear” hurricane with Irma and then Hurricane Maria destroying islands in its path.

Over the last few weeks, actually over the last 10 months, it has been one thing after another (North Korea, Russia, DACA, Racism, Healthcare, Travel Ban). It’s overwhelming. It’s hilariously unbelievable. A few weeks ago my acupuncturist/yoga teacher recommended a news detox when I told her I’m not sleeping well (yes, I am fully aware how California that sentence sounded). I tried it when we went on vacation during Labor Day week – we left for Portland as Irma was starting to churn in the Atlantic and it reminded me of a trip we took to the Upper Peninsula 12 years ago.

Journal Entry

The news break didn’t last long – I have no self-control and there was a story in Portland I had to follow…The first day that we were in Portland we narrowly escaped getting caught by the Eagle Creek forest fire. A few hours after we landed, our friends took us to the gorge and we went on a gorgeous, lush, fun hike to a waterfall and swimming hole.

Eagle Creek Columbia River Gorge

About thirty minutes after we ended our hike, the entire area was on fire (due to a kid lighting fireworks on the trail we had just hiked) and all of the people that were at the waterfall/swimming hole were stuck overnight. The fire is still going over 20 days later – it is not yet 50% contained, and almost 50,000 acres are gone. All that green went up in smoke and turned into ash that rained down on us in Portland. By the time we were heading out of Portland the entire city felt a bit apocalyptic with a red moon, Beijing-like smoky air, hazy sun, and sooty ash. People in the city were so, so sad about the loss.

We’re all always so close to tragedy and disaster. It’s all so very fragile. And yet, all of this crazy is becoming our new normal. Most of us are getting used to this feeling of living on the brink. We’re expecting it to get even worse.

On a happier, less depressing note, we LOVED Portland. Such good veg food (Sweet Herafter, The Bye and Bye, No Bones Beach Club), amazing bike lanes, resistance signs on most businesses and homes, lush greenery, walkable neighborhoods and, of course, Powells Books – where I got my fave bumper sticker of all time READ. RISE. RESIST.

I’m currently reading “Women in the Castle” by Jessica Shattuck. It’s hitting close to home as I read about Germany and those who stood with and those who resisted Hitler & Nazism. If we end up divided by racism and fear like Germany did, we are all going to lose.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue It’s the latest Oprah pick and its a good one! Set during the economic crisis of 2008, the novel follows the impact of the crash on two completely different families in NYC. The immigrants experience vs the people working at Lehman Brothers. I loved this book and think it should be required reading for everyone.

Marlena by Julie Buntin Set in Northern Michigan, this is a rough, raw book about an intense teenage friendship between 2 girls. Drugs, sex, stupid decisions, alcohol – all of the things that are terrifying about teenagers are in this book. Northern Michigan has amazing summers, but they are short and the winter can be incredibly long. In some towns there are the summer people, and then there are the people who live there year round. It can be two totally different experiences. This book looks at class, motherhood, friendship, and so much more.

I love this paragraph of the narrator looking back on her teenage angst: “Great loneliness, profound isolation, a cataclysmic, overpowering sense of being misunderstood. When does that kind of deep feeling just stop? Where does it go? At fifteen, the world ended over and over and over again. To be so young is a kind of self-violence. No fore-sight, an inflated sense of wisdom, and yet you’re still responsible for your mistakes. It’s little frightening to remember just how much, and how precisely, I felt. Now, if the world really did end, I think I’d just feel numb.”

Good Reads:

Woman No. 17 by Eden Lepucki I pretty much hated Lepucki’s first book, so I’m surprised I picked this one up. Like her first book, this one also has completely unlikeable characters, however the story is kind of fun as it explores art, mother issues and class.

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster 4 different versions of a life. This book is long and sometimes hard to keep track off – but I loved all the twists and turns determined by all the ways our lives can go depending on our circumstances. The civil rights protest and the Vietnam war are explored from different perspectives and the main character, Ferguson feels he is writing in a time “when the world was about to blow apart again.” The book made me feel a little better – so many generations have felt like they were watching the world explode.

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich If you only like happy endings where everything is resolved don’t read this book (Poo, I’m especially talking to you). Nothing gets resolved in this novel and that’s hard because it involves the death of an innocent child. I hated a lot of this novel, but parts of it were so amazing I am still thinking about it.

So much stuff to add to library lists. Here’s a good list. Can’t wait for Jennifer Egan’s “Manhattan Beach”!!

It’s June. The summer solstice. Life is speeding up. It is not slowing down. This time of year makes time feel even more fleeting. Wasn’t it just Christmas break? I remember summer vacation as a kid feeling long and endless, now it is over before it even starts.

If you read this blog or know me at all, you’ve heard about my 97 year old Great-Aunt Nancy. I’ve asked her many times if life slows down again when you get old – do those long summer days that we had as kids ever return? They must return after retirement, right? Unfortunately, she says life gets even faster. It doesn’t slow down.

I have become the kind of person who says that youth is wasted on the young (George Bernard Shaw). Like T.S. Eliot, I often feel like I am measuring out my life with coffee spoons…and, of course, the books I am reading. As time passes, I read. I read, and I read.

Here’s some of the best things I have read the last few months – you might want to add a few of them to your summer reading list:

Versions of Us and The Atomic Weight of Love – 2 GREAT books that follow the entire lives of their characters. In Versions of Us we follow 3 different paths that 2 people take based on a single decision made when they first meet one another. Sean & I just celebrated our 17th anniversary. The other night we discussed different paths our lives could have taken (if I had stayed at Michigan State, if we had prevented our first dog from running and tearing his ACL, if we hadn’t moved to California). It is crazy to think about all the decisions that we make that form our life. Versions of Us explores all of that, and it is such a fantastic read.

I loved The Atomic Weight of Love right away because each chapter is named after a group of birds – “A Murder of Crows,” “A Party of Jays,” “An Unkindness of Ravens,” “A Charm of Hummingbirds.” Did you know a group of Hummingbirds is called a Charm – how perfect is that? The book explores the life of a 50’s housewife (who loves birds and science) who follows her husband to Los Alamos (where he is working on a top secret project…) and from there, she tries to find meaning in an environment where women suppress their desires to support their husband. So good! We’ve come a long way in the last 50 years. #imwithher

The final book of The Passage trilogy, City of Mirrors, came out a few weeks ago and it wrapped up the epic series in a super satisfying way. This apocalyptic series full of memorable characters has had me hooked for the last seven years – I can’t believe it is done. The books scared me over and over again with descriptions of virals (bat/vampire/zombie) and empty cities and a world with only 700 people left in it. However, like The Road and other good dystopian books, love is at the center of the story. I’m hesitant to start another book after finishing this yesterday because I really did not want these books to end.

After reading The Tsar of Love and Techno, I read Marra’s A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and it is AMAZING. Read this book and think about what you would do if you were in the situations that the characters are in. What choices would you make? Marra weaves together a heartbreaking story of coincidences, intersecting lives, compassion and survival. I can’t recommend this book enough.

A Little Life is a huge (900+ pages), disturbing, melodramatic book about 4 college roommates who form lifelong friendships and live in New York City. I could not stop reading this book, but I have a hard time recommending it. There is so much beauty in it, but overall it is the most depressing thing I have ever read. Horrible thing after horrible thing happens – and yet I kept reading through all 900 pages. That’s a pretty good endorsement.

The Turner House – A debut novel that is set in Detroit where a family of 13 kids disagree about what should be done with the family house that is under-water. Ghosts, debt, family relationships and more are all explored among a city that has fallen apart.

Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist – Set among the Seattle protests in 1999 during the WTO conference it is fast-paced story telling told from different perspectives. Everyone has their reasons for doing things – its hard to remember that we all come to things with our own, unique backgrounds.

We went to Vegas in February to celebrate my 40th (!!), and as we flew in I read Claire Vaye Watkins dystopian novel Gold Fame Citrus, a novel set in the barren desert outside of California. Vegas is such an improbable place to build a huge city. No water, no green (except for the yards and golf course), no trees. It’s an apocalyptic landscape like the parched, dry world of Gold Fame Citrus (I was thirsty the entire time I read it). Like California and other recent dystopian books (Station Eleven, etc.), this novel has a strong-willed woman as the central character, a loving partner who makes a few wrong choices, and a prophet-like character who exerts a a strong influence over the people around him. It’s a bit formulaic, but its still a good read.

And finally, probably the most impactful book I’ve read lately is Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Book recommendations travel fast in my family, and this one came from my mom via my Aunt Patty. This book discusses how we treat the elderly and dying, and what quality of life actually means. I love Atul Gawande’s writing in the New Yorker (check out Letting Go for a short version of the book), and I plan on re-reading this book over and over. Everyone should read it.

I read each of the following short books in one or two days – good, short reads…

Mislaid – recommending anything by Nell Zink is difficult because she is not for everyone and her characters are always bizarre! Her short, weird books explore race, sexual & class identity, and a lot more in weird ways.

The Vegetarian is short book by Han Kang, a South Korean author. It it a violent exploration of social norms, power, and madness.

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. Two widowed elderly people keep each other company and reflect on their lives. I cried from beginning to end.

The M Train by Patti Smith – not as good as Just Kids, but still an interesting read.

Anthony Bourdain’s new season of Parts Unknown is just as good as the rest of them. One of my favorite things on TV. Favorite episode of this year was Tbilisi, Georgia.

My sister visited me a few weeks ago. She has been to San Diego many, many times to visit, and I love how she still gets excited about new things each time she visits. On this last visit she was most excited about all the Jacaranda trees that were in full bloom and the Little Libraries that we have all over my neighborhood. I take the Little Libraries for granted because we have so many around here (at least 10 within a square mile) and I use them all the time. Add one to your neighborhood if they aren’t there!